{"id":3790,"date":"2015-04-21T11:40:51","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T10:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=3790"},"modified":"2015-04-21T16:53:46","modified_gmt":"2015-04-21T15:53:46","slug":"when-workers-cannot-afford-to-eat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=3790","title":{"rendered":"When workers cannot afford to eat"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new report has revealed that demand for food banks has soared \u00e2\u20ac\u201c thanks to low pay and zero-hours contracts.<\/p>\n

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The TUC study says a record number of families are existing on emergency food hand-outs \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a condemning denunciation of David Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Britain.<\/p>\n

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Food bank provider the Trussell Trust has backed the report, which exposes a shocking 913,138 people used food banks last year up from 128,697 in 2012 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c despite the economic recovery.<\/p>\n

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Trussell Trust chief executive David McAuley, whose charity runs 420 food banks, said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bFood bank use is not rising because people are taking advantage of free food, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rising because people are facing situations where they cannot afford to eat.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Human cost of low pay<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Tory led coalition has continually bragged about making work pay. But try telling that to the families who have seen the biggest squeeze in living standards since the Victorian era,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Steve Turner, Unite assistant general secretary.<\/p>\n

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The TUC says that by 2017 working families will have suffered a \u00c2\u014117.6bn a year loss of social security support, mainly in tax credits and child benefit.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe squeeze continues leaving ordinary people bewildered at the self-congratulatory tone of the government\u00c2\u00a0that has presided over the growing shame of food bank Britain,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added Steve.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Nearly 900,000 of Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s young people are still on the dole and over a million people want to work full-time, but are forced to work part-time as the world of zero hours and insecure work takes a firm hold.<\/p>\n

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\"foodbank2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Richard Gates, a Unite official based in Luton has seen first-hand the struggles of working families and decided to do something about it.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGetting involved seemed like the right thing to do,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe visited our local food bank, got to know the people running it and found out what sort of items people really needed,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

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A drop off point was set up at the regional office and an email sent out to members asking them to buy an extra item in their weekly food shop and drop it off at the office.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEach time we have a group of activists coming in for something like a training event we ask them in advance if they can bring a donation for the food bank with them. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting enough donations for the local food bank to come and collect our items once a fortnight.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Local branches have also set up direct debits to help fund the local food bank.<\/p>\n

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Food banks \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not the solution? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor millions, their experience of work is that of an insecure, hand-to-mouth existence on low wages, with over a million more earning below the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098living wage\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 than when the Tory-led government came to power in 2010,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Steve.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need to give people dignity and put money in their pockets with decent jobs that pay decent wages. While food banks are a lifeline for struggling families the truth is they shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be struggling like this in the first place,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

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A new report has revealed that demand for food banks has soared \u00e2\u20ac\u201c thanks to low pay and zero-hours contracts.   The TUC study says a record number of families are existing on emergency food hand-outs \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a condemning denunciation of David Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Britain.   Food bank provider the Trussell Trust has backed the report, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[76,164,224],"wps_subtitle":"Low pay and zero-hours to blame for increase in food bank demand","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3790"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3795,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790\/revisions\/3795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}